In the past couple of weeks, many news reports and commentators' opinions have had a spot on Tiger Woods' reported sex addiction. Many of the commentators expressed their opinion about what he should do to overcome the scandal and the addiction.
On Fox News a couple of days ago, Brit Hume voiced his opinion about what Tiger Woods should do to get set free of his reported sex addiction and to get on with his career. To paraphrase, he said that Tiger Wood's professed faith in Buddhism couldn't set him free and the only religion that had that capability was Christianity through faith in Jesus Christ. He used "that name" and the media came unglued. Paraphrasing the responses, Brit Hume is a reprehensible, unprofessional, indiscriminate commentator. I wonder if the outcry would have been as loud if he had suggested Tiger Woods read the Koran and pray several time during the day!
Keith Oberman argued the news media shouldn't be a platform for proselytizing. Wikipedia's definition of Proselytizing is the act of attempting to convert people to another opinion and, particularly, another religion. Like every other commentator that has weighed in on this scandal, Brit Hume expressed his opinion. If he was proselytizing, my opinion is that they all were!
So, why can everyone but Christians say what they believe? Specifically, why can't a Christian use the Name of Jesus Christ without causing offense? I posed the question from the standpoint of a Christian because it's acceptable to use His name while calling Him a lunatic or a liar, or while swearing!
Here is my opinion. Jesus Christ, whether people believe in Him or not, holds the power of eternal life and death. He is the absolute source of ethical behavior; He is The Truth. For a non-believer to acknowledge Him as a source of wisdom and as a standard for ethical behavior would be admitting that their belief system could be wrong. Since their belief system is their identity, admitting its possible error could be emotional suicide. Worse yet, it would be admitting that they are accountable to someone and that they can't do and say what they want without retribution. In short, they're afraid they can't practice their religion, secular humanism!
Since Jesus was born, His Name has been hated. The New Testament of the Holy Bible contains historical documentation of this fact. Denial of His existence, criticism of Him and His followers, and legally restricting the speech and actions of Christians doesn't change The Truth. The Words of Christ, the New Testament of the Bible, are the only absolute standards for ethical behavior!
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